Creo Medical losses widen slightly as products progress

Surgical endoscopy technology company Creo Medical reported total first-half sales of £12.9m on Thursday, up from nil sales year-on-year.

The AIM-traded firm said cash and cash equivalents before its equity raise after the period ended totalled £30.6m as at 30 June, down from £70.6m a year earlier.

Its operating loss widened slightly to £11.4m from £10.6m, including £0.6m of share based payments up from £0.5m, in line with management expectations.

Net assets totalled £52.2m at the period end on 30 June, down from £74.2m in the first half of 2020.

On the regulatory and product front, the company achieved 510(k) clearance for MicroBlate Flex with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first half.

It also noted its strengthened intellectual property portfolio, with 326 granted patents and 810 pending applications as at 31 August.

“I am pleased with the strategic and operational progress over the six month period, and continue to be proud of the efforts made by the entire team despite the continuing challenges posed by the pandemic,” said chief executive officer Craig Gulliford.

“Our focus on clinical education, both remotely and in-person, has led to more key opinion leaders being trained on the safe use of our products and more patients being successfully treated with our technology; Speedboat Inject has continued to be used successfully in both POEM and SSD procedures during the period.

“We expect this positive trend to remain in the second half and into 2022 as the pandemic eases, with increasing clinician education, training sites, adoption and patient procedures using our technology.”

Gulliford said the company had made “significant strides” in building out its infrastructure with the opening of its US headquarters, and the purchase of the freehold of Creo House in Chepstow.

“This provides increased capacity to support our commercial and operational footprint across Europe and the US and provides additional manufacturing capacity for our full suite of devices.

“Our team has continued to grow during the period, not just in the US and Europe, but also by enhancing our direct presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Furthermore, we have continued to leverage the acquisitions made during 2020, particularly benefitting from the resulting enlarged sales network within Europe.”

The publication of further health economics data, meanwhile, had underlined the potential of the Speedboat Inject technology to save costs for healthcare systems to a greater extent than first envisaged, Craig Gulliford added.

He said the first patient to undergo a procedure using MicroBlate Fine had shown an “excellent” result, further validating the clinical use of that device.

“With the business ready to service the rising demand we expect for all our products and our strengthened balance sheet following the completion of the placing and open offer in September will allow us to deliver and develop our strategic objectives.

“We are very optimistic for the continued progress of the business throughout 2021 and into 2022.”

At 0925 BST, shares in Creo Medical were down 1.14% at 173p.